Steelers opt for white uniforms

Published 10:00 pm, Tuesday, January 24, 2006

The Steelers will buck years of tradition and wear their white away uniforms in the Super Bowl against the Seahawks, even though they are designated by the NFL as the home team and could wear their more traditional black jerseys and gold pants.

Cowher made the choice by himself and without consulting with ownership, saying, "We're not playing at Heinz Field so, in my mind, it's an away game."

That choice was greeted with smiles and nods at Seahawks headquarters Tuesday. Seattle's players would rather wear their blue jerseys and pants, which they pushed for when the new uniforms and colors were introduced in 2002. The Seahawks are 10-1 in their blue uniforms this season -- 10-0 at Qwest Field, with the lone loss coming Week 4 at Washington against the Redskins. They wore blue jerseys and white pants in a season-opening loss at Jacksonville.

The Steelers' success as a road team no doubt factored into Cowher's decision to wear white for the fourth consecutive game. The Steelers are the only sixth-seeded team to reach the Super Bowl and the first to knock off the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 teams in a conference to get there. They have won in successive weeks at Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Denver.

"We've been playing well last three weeks on road, and this is another fourth game on the road -- I don't know if that's superstitious," he said.

The Steelers also will go against another tradition by not flying to Detroit until Monday -- normally, teams travel to the Super Bowl site on the Sunday before the game. Cowher said there was no reason to go that early.